Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Beware Dalton McGuinty’s TTC Trojan horse

In what amounts to a no-brainer for Premier Dalton McGuinty, the provincial government has introduced legislation to ban strikes by Toronto Transit Commission workers.

Stripping the right to strike from the TTC’s 9,550 unionized workers had been a campaign pledge of Mayor Rob Ford, and he wasn’t alone; last December at its first meeting, council voted 28 to 17 in favour of making the TTC an essential service, sending the issue to Queen’s Park.

Preparing to fight a provincial election in October, Mr. McGuinty wants to be friendly to Mr. Ford, who so handily won the mayoral race.

It doesn’t hurt that the new law will not cost the province a nickel. Although contract awards for workers forbidden from striking, such as police and firefighters, tend to be more generous, the people of Toronto will pay those higher costs — not the province.

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Charles Sousa, Ontario’s minister of labour, noted in the legislature Tuesday afternoon that the Government of Ontario has legislated TTC workers back to work only five times in the past 35 years. Still, he said he was introducing the new rules at the request of the people of Toronto, and to recognize the “vital, unique and critical role that the TTC plays in the City of Toronto.”

“This will ensure that riders have continuity of service,” Ms. Stintz told reporters in the Member’s Lounge at City Hall. “All outstanding disputes will be sent to binding arbitration. This will ensure labour continuity.”

Although banning TTC strikes is an easy decision for Mr. McGuinty, the fallout for the City of Toronto will be more complicated, expensive, and potentially troublesome.

TTC management, in 2008 and again in December, made it clear it does not support making the TTC an essential service. A study by the C. D. Howe Institute in 2008 estimated that making the TTC essential would cost the city about $23-million more over a three-year contract.

Bob Kinnear, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, emerged from a meeting with officials of the Ontario Ministry of Labour, on the eighth floor of the Zurich Centre, at 400 University Avenue, in a combative mood.

“Karen Stintz has been talking about continuity of service, but Karen has got the wrong ‘C’ word,” Mr. Kinnear told reporters. “She is talking about confrontation. Unfortunately the Mayor is too much of a coward to admit that that’s what he’s trying to do. This is about discrediting the unions.”

Mr. Kinnear said his workers will not strike, even if the province fails to enact the strike ban before his 9,000 TTC workers’ contract expires, on March 31. But he noted that work-to-rule is a possibility.

Councillor Joe Mihevc (St. Paul’s), vice-chair of the TTC during the Miller years, noted that “in jurisdictions where the right to strike is eliminated, they work to rule. Anyone not behind the white line on the bus, the driver shuts the door. He doesn’t tell people that they have to move back.”

A longtime ban on transit strikes in New York has not stopped its union from disrupting service, Mr. Kinnear noted. In contrast, the Montreal model, where transit workers must provide service in morning and afternoon rush hours, and late at night — even during a strike — has contributed to some labour peace in that city.

Similar peace has yet come to Toronto, where some councillors remain divided on the issue.

“Queen’s Park listened to the City of Toronto and its residents today,” said Councillor Josh Matlow (St. Paul’s). “I’m delighted to hear that they’re respecting the wishes of Torontonians who rely on our transit system each and every day. The TTC takes people to work, to play, to the hospital and to really support their lives every day.”

But Councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East), the former budget chief, warned of costs that will accrue to taxpayers that Mr. Ford vowed to respect.

“Toronto taxpayers can’t afford the transit system now, and ‘it just got a whole lot more expensive,” she said. “We have an operating budget that we can scarcely afford today paid for by fare box and property taxes, and the province is refusing to help us with operating. We can’t afford to operate the existing system on day-to-day basis. We’re just playing short-term political games.”

In this light, Mr. McGuinty’s gift to transit riders ends up looking less like a Red Rocket and more like a Trojan horse.